A&A 454, 447-452 (2006)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20054630
P. Tzanavaris1 - I. Georgantopoulos1 - A. Georgakakis2
1 - Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, National
Observatory of Athens, I. Metaxa & V. Pavlou, Penteli 15236, Greece
2 -
Astrophysics Group, Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory,
Prince Consort Rd., London, SW7 2AW, UK
Received 2 December 2005 / Accepted 26 February 2006
Abstract
Aims. We cross-correlated the Chandra XASSIST and XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogues with the 2 degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) database. Our aim was to identify the most X-ray luminous (
erg s-1) examples of galaxies in the local Universe whose X-ray emission is dominated by stellar processes rather than AGN activity ("normal'' galaxies), as well as to test the empirical criterion
< -2 for separating AGN from NGs. We also performed a similar search in two nearby-galaxy samples from the literature.
Methods. With XMM-Newton (Chandra) we covered an area of 8.2 (
5.8) deg2 down to a flux limit of
(
) erg cm-2 s-1. We classified 2dFGRS spectra using emission-line intensity ratios.
Results. We found 18 (20) 2dFGRS galaxies with XMM-Newton (Chandra), which constitute our XMM-Newton-2dFGRS (Chandra-2dFGRS) correlation sample. We classified 6 2dFGRS spectra as star-forming, H II nuclei, and 2 spectra as possible H II nuclei. The rest of the objects are absorption-line galaxies and AGN, including 3 possible LINERs. No luminous "normal'' galaxies have been found, but out of 19 "normal'' galaxies in this sample, 5 H II and 3 absorption-line galaxies have
> -2. Furthermore, all 44 galaxies in the first literature sample have
and
erg s-1. In the second literature sample, out of a total of 170 "normal'' galaxies, we found 16 galaxies with
>-2, the majority of which are massive ellipticals. Three of these have
erg s-1.
Conclusions. We found no luminous "normal'' galaxies in our XMM-Newton-2dFGRS and Chandra-2dFGRScorrelation samples. We found three such galaxies in the second literature sample. Considering all samples, we find that the
criterion seems to select primarily against the brightest, massive ellipticals.
Key words: X-rays: galaxies - galaxies: starburst - galaxies: active
The X-ray luminosity of NGs is usually weak,
erg s-1,
i.e., a few orders of magnitude below that of powerful AGN
(Zezas et al. 1998; Moran et al. 1999). As a result, observed
X-ray fluxes are faint and, until recently, only the very local
systems (
)
were accessible to X-ray missions. With
the new generation of X-ray missions, Chandra and XMM-Newton, the
situation has changed dramatically. The Chandra Deep Fields North
and South
(CDF-N, CDF-S; Alexander et al. 2003; Giacconi et al. 2002) have reached
fluxes
erg cm-2 s-1, thus providing
the first ever X-ray-selected sample of NGs at cosmologically
interesting redshifts. Using the 2 Ms CDF-North,
Hornschemeier et al. (2003) provided a sample of 43 NG candidates for
which optical spectroscopic observations are
available. These galaxies have X-ray-to-optical flux ratios
,
which these authors use as an empirical boundary,
separating quiescent NGs from AGN.
Norman et al. (2004) extended this study and
identified over 100 NG candidates in the combined CDF-N and CDF-S,
although optical spectroscopic data are available only for a fraction
of these objects. However, these authors have included NGs
with
>-2. On the other hand, Georgakakis et al. (2003)
and Georgakakis et al. (2004a) have identified NGs with
.
Within the framework of the "Needles in the
Haystack Survey'' (NHS), Georgakakis et al. (2004b) and
Georgantopoulos et al. (2005)
combined XMM-Newton data with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
and used several selection criteria, including
< -2, to identify 28 NG candidates. By combining this
sample with 18 z<0.2 galaxies from the CDFs, these authors
constructed the first local X-ray luminosity function of
NGs. However, it must be stressed that this result depends on
the completeness of NG samples, which, in turn,
may be biasing to quiescent systems and selecting
against X-ray luminous (with X-ray luminosities
erg s-1)
starbursts and massive ellipticals, which are likely to
show
(Alexander et al. 2003).
Indeed, the local luminosity function of
Georgantopoulos et al. (2005) agrees well with that of
Norman et al. (2004) at the faint end, but
disagrees at the bright end. If bright galaxies
are missed due to the
criterion, this might
explain the discrepancy.
Alternatively, the Norman et al. (2004)
may suffer from AGN contamination.
It is thus imperative to understand the significance of this bias and to resolve the controversy to constrain the local luminosity function, which also provides a local "anchor point'' for investigating luminosity function evolution.
In the work described in this paper, we searched for luminous NGs by performing a cross-correlation between, on the one hand, two large X-ray catalogues, and, on the other hand, the 2 degree field galaxy redshift survey (2dFGRS). Our aim was twofold:
For our purposes, the 2dFGRS presents the advantage that its depth
allows detection of galaxies up to
for
(see Fig. 2).
We obtained 18 sources which have been detected both by 2dFGRS and by
XMM/EPIC. The sources are detected in 42 XMM-Newton fields. The area covered for this sample is
to a flux limit of
erg cm-2 s-1.
The largest separation between an X-ray and an optical
position in this sample is 5.1
.
All X-ray/optical counterparts
were checked visually.
For all sources, we estimate the probability of detecting
an optical
counterpart by chance to be less than 1% for all sources.
These 18 X-ray/optical pairs form our XMM-Newton-2dFGRS correlation sample.
We calculated X-ray fluxes, ,
after taking into account the
column density of Galactic neutral hydrogen,
,
along the line of
sight to each observed source. Further, we calculated the X-ray
luminosity,
,
by using source redshifts, z, and X-ray fluxes,
assuming power law spectra with a photon index
.
We obtained hardness ratio values, HR, from the 1XMM catalogue, using
unvignetted count rates in the energy bands 0.5-2.0 keV (S) and
2.0-4.5 keV (H), so that
Table 1:
The XMM-Newton/ 2dFGRS correlation sample. Shown from left to right are sample
identification number, 2dFGRS database name, right ascension and declination for
the X-ray source, offset between X-ray and optical source,
magnitude from
2dFGRS, X-ray flux, redshift from 2dFGRS, logarithm of X-ray luminosity,
logarithmic X-ray-to-optical flux ratio, hardness ratio and error, and, in
the last column, suggested galaxy type. For this column, the following abbreviations
hold: A: absorption line galaxy; F: featureless 2dFGRS spectrum; G: source appears in group; H II: H II nucleus. A question mark indicates
that a classification is not possible. Question marks after a
classification indicate a high degree of uncertainty.
Table 2: The Chandra/ 2dFGRS correlation sample. Column details are as in the previous figure.
We obtained 20 sources for which the optical and X-ray sources are
separated by less than 3
,
the largest X-ray/optical offset
being 2.9
.
The sources are detected in 58 distinct fields.
The area covered for this sample is
to
a flux limit of
erg cm-2 s-1.
For each source, we calculated
by using z and
.
We used
the value of
provided by XASSIST.
We calculated HRs using the original ACIS event files and the soft (hard) energy band 0.3-2.0 keV (2.0-8.0 keV).
As in the previous section, the sources were also checked visually. The probability of detecting an optical counterpart by chance is, once more, less than 1%.
Details of our Chandra-2dFGRS correlation sample are given in Table 2.
Table 3:
NGs with
>-2. Groups of rows separated by horizontal
lines correspond to the sample indicated in the first column. 2dFGRS stands for the combined correlation samples 2dFGRS- XMM-Newton and
2dFGRS- Chandra. Each row corresponds to the NG type indicated in the
second column. Each of the last three columns gives the fraction of
NGs with
>-2 in the
region indicated at the top of
the column. Note that the second of these columns includes NGs from
the
column which also have
.
Thus, the numerator gives the number of NGs of a given type
in a given sample and a given
range, and the denominator
the total number of NGs in the same sample and
range.
Galaxies for which only upper limit information is available have not
been taken into account. Empty entries indicate that no NGs of this
type have been found. Galaxy labels are as in Tables 1
and 2. Additionally, "sb''rq stands for starburst
and "E'' for
elliptical.
For optical spectra it has been shown that empirical emission-line
intensity ratios may be used as a diagnostic of AGN activity
(BPT diagrams, Baldwin et al. 1981). We adopted the
classification scheme of Ho et al. (1997), which is based on
the diagnostic diagrams proposed by
Veilleux & Osterbrock (1987). Ho et al. (1997) used the line
ratios [O III] 5007/H,
[O I] 6300/H
,
[N II] 6583/H
,
and
[S II] 6716, 6731/H
,
which are least sensitive to dust reddening
and flux calibration because the wavelength separation between members
of each line pair is small. Additionally, since the ratios involve a
line of only one element and an H I Balmer line, they are less
abundance-sensitive. We used this as our primary method of
classification. Unfortunately, absolute flux calibration for 2dFGRS fibres, which can differ substantially in their throughput, cannot be
done reliably. For this reason, we were unable to perform subtraction
of stellar templates, which depends crucially on the shape of the
galaxy spectrum. As a result, we only classified galaxies as "normal'' (or not), when all four of the line-intensity ratios
unambiguously suggested this. If only some lines were observable, the
classification is only tentative, which is denoted by a question mark
after the type entry in the sample tables. Finally, some spectra were
tentatively classified as LINERS, according to the classification
criteria of Ho et al. (1997).
In the case of sources 1, 2, 4, and 6 from the Chandra-2dFGRS correlation sample, the above method failed.
Using the tool PIMMS, we carried
out tests to estimate the hydrogen column density needed to
obtain the observed hardness ratio, assuming the source flux and
redshift, as well as a power law spectrum with photon index
around
.
Our tests showed that for all sources
>
1022, suggesting obscured AGN, as indicated
in Table 2. However, better optical observations are needed
to clarify the situation further, for the following reasons. For
source 1, the spectrum is of poor quality, whilst the H
line is not
covered. For source 2, the H
and [N II] lines appear suppressed,
but it is unclear whether this has a physical origin or is a data
reduction artefact. For source 4,
there is a hint of a broad H
line, which only partially falls
within the 2dFGRS spectrum. In the case of source 6, the H
line
appears absorbed and the [N II] line falls outside the spectrum.
The emission-line ratio method also failed for sources 17 and 19.
However, as the optical spectra of these sources show
very broad H
or H
emission lines (>1000 km s-1),
the sources were also
classified as AGN, and this is indicated in Table 2.
Further, to separate NGs from AGN, it is often assumed that
for NGs, the X-ray-to-optical flux ratio obeys
<-2, i.e., is
two orders of magnitude lower than for typical AGN. The X-ray
luminosity is similarly assumed to obey
erg s-1 (Fabbiano 1989).
For the 2dFGRS correlation sample, we estimated
from the relation
![]() |
(3) |
B-V=0.53 | (4) |
We stress that we did not use either
or
to classify
sources. On the contrary, as explained above, where possible, we first
classified sources as NGs or AGN using optical criteria. Subsequently, we used
to look for luminous NGs, and checked whether the classification
agreed with the empirical AGN/NG break at
.
![]() |
Figure 1:
Plot of
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Open with DEXTER |
A plot of
versus
is shown in Fig. 1. Apart
from our XMM-Newton and Chandra results, for comparison and completeness
purposes we have plotted data from the following sources:
This comprises 44 galaxies detected by ROSAT PSPC, spanning the
luminosity range
erg s-1. Galaxies in this sample have been
classified on the basis of high quality nuclear spectra from
Ho et al. (1997).
The galaxies have been observed with the Einstein observatory
and comprise all morphological types. Galaxies flagged as AGN hosts
in the original sample have been excluded. We have also carried out a
further literature search to exclude more AGN from the final plotted
sample. Galaxies for which only upper limit
and
information is available are plotted with downward-pointing arrows.
We used the
values from Fabbiano et al. (1992), after
scaling for H0=72
.
The
values plotted were computed
as explained in Sect. 3, using the 0.2-4.0 keV flux
and B magnitude information from Fabbiano et al. (1992), and
B-V=0.655. The latter is the average B-V value for nearby galaxies
of all morphological types (Fukugita et al. 1995, Table 3a).
The observed correlation shows that
reaches values significantly
higher than -2 as
becomes higher than
.
Thus, any survey for NGs which uses a
cut is likely to
suffer from incompleteness at the brightest luminosities. Although
none of our samples can be said to be statistically complete, we may
assume that galaxies from different populations are randomly selected.
To assess the incompleteness, we give the fraction of NGs in three
regions per NG type and sample in Table 3. Only
NGs with
>-2 are included. Galaxies for which only upper limit
values are available are not used.
From Fig. 1 and Table 3 it is clear that all galaxies in the
sample of Zezas (2001) have both
and
<-2. However, in the sample of Fabbiano et al. (1992),
there is a number of galaxies for which
>-2.
![]() |
Figure 2:
Plot of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Open with DEXTER |
Specifically, as can be seen from Table 3, there are 13
galaxies from this sample, for which
>-2 and
.
All but one
of these galaxies have
.
About 15% are starbursts
(2/13) and the rest massive ellipticals, brightest either in a group (BGGs)
or cluster (BCGs).
In the
region, there are 3 galaxies with
>-2.
Two of these are massive elliptical BGGs and the third is
a cD BCG.
It is instructive to investigate how many galaxies with
we should expect to detect, given our survey's flux limit and
area covered. We used our flux limits and
to
integrate the local X-ray luminosity function of NGs
(Georgantopoulos et al. 2005). We found that we would expect to see
1 galaxy with each telescope. In the 2dFGRS correlation sample, there
is a single absorption line galaxy at
,
which is a good
NG candidate. There is thus good order-of-magnitude agreement between
our simple estimate and actual results.
It is also useful to compare observed values of
to the numbers
expected due to low mass X-ray binaries (LXRBs), whose combined
luminosity has been shown to scale with the stellar mass of the host
galaxy (Gilfanov 2004). We estimated the value of
expected for
a
galaxy, using the
and
correlations from Gilfanov (2004)
(Fig. 14 and Eq. (2), respectively). We used the average value
of B-V for all galaxies in our paper, and the average value of
V-K for all galaxy types from Mannucci et al. (2001). We obtained
the value
,
shown by the dot-dashed line
in Fig. 1. The bulk of the points in this plot
fall above this line, suggesting that this value is a good estimate
for a lower
estimate.
Our sample is by no means complete.
In Fig. 2, we plot
magnitude against 0.5-2.0keV flux for all galaxies in the 2dFGRS correlation sample. The solid
oblique lines show
loci for different values of
.
Our
galaxies are split in approximately equal numbers among the regions
demarcated by the constant
lines. The dashed horizontal line
shows the 2dFGRS magnitude limit at
.
The dashed-dotted
vertical line shows the approximate flux limit of our correlation
sample. It is clear that, at this limit, our survey misses galaxies
in the region -2 <
<-1, where luminous NGs are likely to be
found. Such galaxies would not be missed at a higher flux limit,
erg cm-2 s-1. Furthermore,
for galaxies brighter than
,
saturation effects affect the completeness of 2dFGRS(Norberg et al. 2002).
The Fabbiano et al. (1992) sample also suffers from increasing
incompleteness as
increases. Table 3 shows
that the fraction of NGs with
>-2 rises from
(13 out
of 167 galaxies) below
to 100% above
(3
out of 3 galaxies). For
,
the majority of NGs with
>-2 are massive ellipticals, and for
,
all are
of this type. Although the 2dFGRS correlation sample has fewer
galaxies, it is clear that, at least at the highest luminosities,
there is a similar pattern, with absorption line galaxies making up
the bulk of NGs with
>-2. We note, however, that, considering
all
regions together, the fraction of NGs
with
>-2 in the 2dFGRS correlation sample is much higher than in
the Fabbiano et al. (1992) sample (
versus
). This may suggest that the 2dFGRS correlation sample may suffer
from residual AGN contamination. Furthermore, as mentioned in
Sect. 3, this sample suffers from incompleteness at
bright optical magnitudes.
Considering all samples, a picture is thus emerging in which the
criterion selects against the brightest ellipticals, but is not
inadequate for other morphological types. However, the ellipticals in
question, although "normal'' in the sense that they do not host
an AGN, belong to a distinct sub-class with respect to star-forming
galaxies, as well as other ellipticals: these galaxies are found in
the centres of X-ray bright groups or clusters. Such systems are
affected significantly by their environment. For instance, they are,
on average, considerably more luminous than normal
ellipticals. Furthermore, group dominant galaxies have been shown to
have temperature profiles indicative of central cooling
(Helsdon & Ponman 2000), leading to the suggestion that their
halos are actually the product of cooling flows associated with the
surrounding group.
The significance of the findings from the 2dFGRS correlation samples is unclear, given the uncertainty in morphological type and diagnostic emission line ratios. Furthermore, classification of 2dFGRS galaxies which remain unclassified in this work would make the current picture more clear. However, flux calibrated spectra of higher signal-to-noise ratios over the full wavelength range, covering all diagnostic emission lines, are necessary for this to be achieved.
From a different perspective, we note that we found no confirmed AGN
with
.
Regardless of any completeness problems, this shows that
the NHS surveys (Georgakakis et al. 2004b; Georgantopoulos et al. 2005) are at
least not significantly contaminated by AGN.
Considering all samples, we thus find that the
criterion
seems to select primarily against the brightest, massive
ellipticals (BCGs and BGGs).
Further, we also find that the great majority of
our galaxies have
> -3.8 which represents an estimate
for the contribution of LXRBs to the X-ray luminosity of
galaxies.
Acknowledgements
We thank the anonymous referee for constructive comments which helped improve the manuscript. This work is funded in part by the Greek National Secretariat for Research and Technology within the framework of the Greece-USA collaboration programme Study of Galaxies with the Chandra X-ray Satellite. We acknowledge the use of data from the XMM-Newton Science Archive at VILSPA, the Chandra-XAssist archive, and the 2dFGRS. This research has made use of data obtained from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.